The startling new figures show that the network provided almost 3 million (2,986,203) emergency food parcels to people experiencing hardship over the past 12 months – with over 1 million parcels going to children across the UK.
This is a 37% increase from 2021/22, and figures are more than double (120%) the levels seen five years ago, in 2017/18. In our Braintree area the increase has been a startling 66%. The levels of need were particularly acute in winter, and, in January and February 2023, our busiest months, we fed 119 more people in 2023 than in the same months in 2022
The last year has also seen more than 328,000 families forced to turn to food banks for the first time in the last 12 months – a 38% increase compared to the same period last year. The number of families includes over 760,000 people.
You can read about what the figures are showing across the nations and regions of the UK and what we’ve been hearing from food banks in the network here.